Shaving cream is commonly packaged and sold in various ways well known to the art. In one form, a collapsible tube is employed from which a lather type cream or a so-called "brushless" cream may be extruded. In another well known form, shaving cream is received in a pressurized rigid container from which small quantities of instant lather may be dispensed by pressing against a valve mechanism in the container.
In the case of both the instant lather as well as the brushless cream, it is customary for a user to receive dispensed lather or cream on the fingers and to manually apply this material to the face so that a uniform layer is spread over the area to be shaved. Such manual application of cream or lather may be objectionable since it entails a further operation of washing away excess cream or lather from the fingers before shaving is undertaken. Also moistening the beard, as is customarily accomplished with a shaving brush and hot water, cannot be carried out as effectively by the manual application of a cream or lather which contains little or no water.
Proposals have been made to provide various forms of applicator means. One such proposal has been to provide a cellulosic sponge element to be attached to the bottom of a pressurized container as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,292. It has also been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,271,589 to combine with a container for cleaning fluid an auxiliary applicator which may be in the form of sponge rubber. Neither of these devices have proven to be practical, and it is believed that there is no combination applicator and container now in use in the trade by means of which manual application of shaving cream or lather can be avoided.